Press under fire
Shafqat Mahmood
This is a strange battle. The government objects to Pakistani newspapers reproducing stories that appear in the foreign press. Stories that concern Pakistan and some of it's top public representatives and officials. Stories of corruption, of lawsuits and of profligate spending. They contradict these allegations through official handouts published in local papers. What they do not do is sue the British newspapers for printing what they consider to be false stories. What can we make of this?
Not taking foreign newspapers to court is a serious indictment of our leaders. Unlike here, the decisions in British courts are quick and retribution for false allegations serious. Yet they dither. Not one good reason has been given by them, so far, for not exercising the legal option. By default, this amounts to admitting the accuracy of these reports. They have enough political sense to understand this. Unwilling to sift the truth from lies in Britain, they try to do the next best thing. They discharge all the weapons in their armoury to stop the Pakistani papers from reproducing these stories. When they fail to do so, they get mad as hell. How else can one explain this government's unseemly brushes with the press?
What are Pakistani newspapers supposed to do? Should they ignore what is written about Pakistan and its leaders in the foreign press? If half the world knows the story, why should our people be kept in the dark? Pakistani newspapers are not manufacturing these stories. They are only reproducing them. Why has this become a cardinal sin in the eyes of our leaders?
The answer is obvious. In the moral framework of such people public censure is a bigger sin than the evil act itself. They will do every thing that God fearing, law abiding people consider morally reprehensible. Yet, it will only bother them if others find out. On such a shaky foundation is the moral code of these people anchored.
How else can we account for such obvious contradictions in the lives of this particular breed of our ruling elite? They will say their prayers five times a day, but not bat an eyelid when they rob the banking system of this poor bankrupt country. They will become champions of Shariat, yet make every effort to avoid paying their share of taxes. They are a God fearing people who wear their piety on their sleeve, but their pious convictions are only skin-deep.
In them, and in many others like them, outward projection of piety and devotion and a no holds barred pursuit of self interest coexist peacefully together. They do not see the contradictions that so squarely hit us in the face. They are at peace because they have drawn clear boundaries between the public act and the private prayer. It is a split mindset that carefully differentiates the holy from the worldly. It has internalised religion to only mean strictly observing the rituals to take care of eternity. In the temporal life every thing for them is fair game. The only rule that counts is success. It is an attempt to have the best of both worlds. Give unto God what is God's and unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
This kind of twisted morality is not peculiar to some powerful politicians only. There is no shortage of ostensibly pious people in our society who live by such a dual code. They will emphasise one aspect of religion, the ritualistic, and yet completely ignore the moral code inherent in Islam: a moral code that defines piety as a way of life; as an all embracing goodness that permeates every act, every step, whether in personal life or in public life. Maybe this is asking for too much.
It is, particularly of people who have reached the dizzy heights of fame and fortune, in relatively quick time. Often, their rapid ascent has meant subterfuge and deceit and trampling over people. For them the veil of darkness is essential to hide the truth. They would use every resource to ensure that this veil remains intact. This is particularly true of those who choose to then dabble in politics. Image is all in politics, the reality taking a back seat. That is where the media comes in. It is therefore no surprise that all political figures, especially when in power, now give close attention to the media. Maybe using the word media is too broad because television is under state control so the most powerful medium has been locked up. That leaves the print media. And it is here that the battle begins.
During their political journey, they learn the essentials of modern day media handling, which usually mean a nicely calibrated carrot and stick approach to patronise a loyal band of followers in the press. The politics of plots, jobs for sons and nephews and funds doled out to paper NGOs is an all too familiar a feature of our society. And even if lifafa journalism fails to work out, there always are trusted lieutenants in the party ranks to attack newspaper offices and publicly burn copies meant for distribution.
And these methods of manipulating media were introduced in Islamabad as well. We may forget the favours doled out to the select few but it is hard to forget police cases against publications and individual journalists. The sedition case against Dr Maleeha Lodhi, the editor of The News, by the previous Muslim League government was a particularly memorable example of their love for democracy. No less a feather in their cap was the harassment of Newsline in Karachi and the Friday Times in Lahore.
There is no reason why they should be different this time around. The campaign against Jang/The News and its editors is no surprise. What is astonishing is the audacity that prompts a government to even consider asking a publishing house to sack journalists and editors they don't like. The very presence of this mindset is a clear reflection of what this lot really thinks of democracy and its freedoms.
We, the people of this country, have no choice but to resist these brazen assaults on the freedom of the press. Even more importantly we have to struggle against a dictatorial mindset that is determined to take completed control of all the institutions in this country. Not content with subduing the other pillars of the state, the government has now launched a determined assault on the one blessing of our democracy -- a free press. This is a test case not only for the government but for the rest of the media. If this campaign against the media succeeds, we all lose. Since there is precious little left to lose, we must fight for what we have. To the bitter end.